A highly porous aluminum hydroxide gel is used as the precursor of a porous ceramic material, a coating material and a catalyst support. For use of these, not only the physiochemical control of the particle morphology, the pore characteristics and a peptization but also the study of a synthetic method for the preparation of highly porous aluminum hydroxide gels was required. In this study, highly porous aluminum hydroxide gels were prepared through the aging and filtration process of an aluminum hydroxide gels precipitated by the hydrolysis reaction of a Na(2)CO(3) solution and a mixed solution of Al(2)(SO(4))(3) and Na(2)SO(4). In this process, the optimum synthetic conditions of aluminum hydroxide gels having an excellent pore volume as a study of the effect of the hydrolysis pH on gel precipitates has been made. The hydrolysis pH brought about numerous changes in crystal morphology, surface area, pore volume and pore size. The physiochemical properties of the aluminum hydroxide gels were investigated using XRD, TEM, TG/DTA, FT-IR and N(2) BET method.

Keywords: Aluminum hydroxides gel; Mineralizer; Porous ceramic; Catalytic support